Minnesotans have a complicated relationship with summer. Three months of full-throttle compensation for the year’s remaining nine. The patio is the temple of that compensation. These are the ones we end up at as soon as it cracks fifty.
A rooftop patio above one of the city’s most beloved bowling-alley-and-actual-theaters. Strong cocktails, a brunch menu that holds up on the deck, a Lyn-Lake view that hits different at golden hour.
A full city block of patio in the heart of Northeast’s brewery district. Live music most weekends, a rotating cast of food trucks, dogs welcome, and a public-square feeling that beer halls in this country mostly fail to pull off.
A seasonal pavilion next to Minnehaha Falls. The lobster rolls are real, the lines are real, the picnic-table patio is one of the metro’s best public spaces. May through October.
The dog-friendliest patio in the city, attached to a cider house that takes hops as seriously as fruit. Big communal tables, weekend live music, a fenced yard that turns into a four-legged social hour by 4pm.
The destination brewery to end all of them. Half-ringed by the brewery’s glass facade, half open to a green that fills the moment the temperature breaks. The pizza is shockingly good, by the way.
A tiki bar perched on the Mississippi with frozen drinks the size of fishbowls and pizza built for sharing. The patio is unreasonably large, the river view does most of the work.
Walk-up window, fish tacos, picnic tables on the north shore of Bde Maka Ska. Pure summer Minneapolis, the kind of place you bike to, eat at, and bike home from feeling accomplished. May through September.
On the southwest side of Nokomis, with sand a few feet from the patio. Burgers, brats, fish tacos, and a kids-and-dogs-and-strollers chaos that is the whole point. Seasonal, no reservations, just go.
A St. Paul taproom whose patio quietly out-vibes most Minneapolis breweries. Long picnic tables, rotating food trucks, a yard that catches just enough afternoon sun. Lager program is among the best in the metro.
A St. Paul brewery that lucked into a perfect patio location. Walking distance to CHS Field, around the corner from Mears Park, on a corner that catches afternoon sun. Pre-Saints-game patios do not come better.
A 200-boat dock and a wraparound deck on Lake Minnetonka’s most-watched stretch. Worth the drive on a summer afternoon, especially if you can find someone with a pontoon. The Wharf burger is the order.
A neighborhood restaurant with a patio just steps from the Mississippi. Comfortable, unfussy, the right place for a long Wednesday dinner that stretches well into golden hour. Order the mussels.